ABSTRACT
A dancer carrying a dance bag over her right shoulder slowly walks into a studio for morning class. Plopping the bag down under the barre, she bends over to pop first the right and then the left hip. Success! Tightness gone. (A dancer’s morning ritual is particular to oneself and reflects the past day’s rehearsal moves, weather, and any other variables that impact her physically or mentally for what she is about to do in movement.) Easing herself down to the floor, hamstrings are next. Gently she bends forward. Right leg tighter; too many lifts yesterday. Into the dance bag and out comes the tennis ball. (Tennis balls help to loosen trigger points and, while painful, it’s a pain that often releases after pressing into the tennis ball, providing flexibility and increased awareness and flow in that area.) Still tight; can’t feel all hamstrings. She bends forward and then slowly back. Deep breaths, release, release, release, shoulders down easy, breathe. Better knead more. Slowly and gently twisting, bending and extending her body like a call and response between her and her body, she gets better acquainted with who she is that day. More to do, not so quickly, back of leg still tight. She lies down on the floor and slowly yawns her leg forward in a battement tendu, feeling her body create support and move against that support as she extends one leg to the front and ever so slowly rolls through her foot until her leg is in full extension, listening for any twinge and noting all myofascial responses during the move. Breath may need to be approached differently; used more to go deeper in the body beginning exercises. Breath can help to achieve the connection with the skeletal muscles that support mobility and find a kinetic chain that creates a co-ordination of flow. It is flow derived from breath which will allow her to morph into a swan today, then a fairy, and still later transform herself into an angular moving abstract component in a geometric design for the new avant-garde work. The environment, other people, and all other variables in the space and time of warm-up class co-construct a dancer’s identity, yet in this inner sanctum of physicality the dialogue is within the bodymind of the dancer (i.e., self to self).
